The Maillard Reaction
by Snargaluff Pod
Summary: It seemed fate loved to make him suffer. The boy-who-just-wouldn't-die. After a messy fight at the Ministry of Magic Harry finds himself thrown into a crazy world of superheroes, gods, and talking computers. What happened next? Well, you'll have to read on to find out!
1. Chapter 1

**What's this? A new story when I haven't update any of my other fics in months? I'd say I'm sorry, but I've had this fanfic in the works since NANOWRIMO 2016 (and my other stories are very emotionally draining to write) .It was my first nanowrimo ever and although I didn't get anywhere near that 50,000 word goal or finishing this fic in that month, I did write every day for that whole month and got around 15,000 words written, which was huge for me! Since November I've gone over what I've got a few times and I'm working on later chapters. So at the moment I have a few chapter's buffer? I don't know how long that will last though haha**

 **This is my first Avengers fic that I've written, so if any of the characterisation is a bit weird it's because I was introduced to the MCU through fanfiction first and watched the movies a lot later aha. I haven't read any of the comics.**

 **I hope you enjoy this fanfic. I now know far too much about how toast toasts!**

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 **OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER:**

 **I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER NOR THE AVENGERS. I'M JUST PLAYING IN THIS MAGICAL SANDBOX.**

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Harry ducked under the green light that flew towards him, throwing back an _expelliarmus_ closely followed by a _stupify_ before moving on to the next Death Eater he saw. It had already been a long messy fight; one that they were losing. He had only come to the ministry in the first place because he thought that Sirius was being tortured. It had been so obvious a trap that Harry was kicking himself for not having listened to Hermione . Sirius wouldn't be dead if they had just stopped and checked properly. His friends wouldn't be dead. It seemed fate loved to make him suffer. He was still alive when so many others were dead. The boy-who-just-wouldn't-die.

Harry dropped to the floor as he saw an _Avada Kedavra_ head toward his head, unknowing of the other two spells that had been sent at from behind him until he saw them collide with each other above his head. They had an explosive effect, Harry's eyes widened as the explosion quickly switched to being an implosion. Harry tried to scramble to his feet but he had delayed a second too long. He was sucked into the epicentre of the implosion; his last thought that at least in death he would be reunited with his parents and friends.

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* * *

Tony walked into the kitchen. His eyes widened as they rested on the atrocity that was being performed in his kitchen.

"No!" He cried, leaping forward and tried to knock the knife out of Bruce's hand before it was too late. He failed as the knife was moved out of his reach.

"What?" Bruce asked crankily, seemingly annoyed at Tony. He brought the knife down, onto the piece of charcoaled toast in his hand.

"You've wrecked it!" Tony cried dramatically. Who could do such a thing to an innocent piece of bread?

"No I haven't." Bruce retorted. How could he not see what he had done to a perfectly good piece of bread?

"It's black!" He exclaimed. It wasn't as if the toast was just slightly black, the whole thing was completely black.

"I like it like that."

"You do know that because of the Maillard Reaction, toast can contain high levels of acrylamide, right?"

"I'm not going to die of cancer, Tony. I think if I were to get cancer it would have been because of the high level of gamma radiation that resulted in the creation of The Other Guy."

"But if you cook it for more than 216 seconds then you lose the 12:1 exterior/interior crispiness ratio!" Tony cried, trying to find an avenue of argument that could prevent Bruce from continuing his heinous actions.

"And it's better crunchy!" Bruce said exasperatedly.

Before Tony could retort any further he was interrupted by Jarvis.

"Sir, there are abnormal energy readings coming from the living room. They are somewhat similar to that of the Tesseract. I would advise extreme caution."

Tony's eyes widened and he heard Bruce's plate hit the floor. Tony knew what they both were thinking and that was that no one needed another invasion of earth. He ran into the living room, but couldn't see any visible change in the room before him. "Source Jar?"

"Epicentre of energy is 2.74 metres from you, 9° anticlockwise, Sir." Jarvis replied. Tony blinked, looking at the place specified, unable to see any visible change. There was a sudden flash of light and a wind picked up in the room, outward from the source of energy. Evidently, if it was a portal like that created by the Tesseract, it was a vacuum on the other side, drawing air through, thus creating a breeze.

"Energy levels spiking Sir."

"I can see that Jarvis." Tony drawled, not knowing whether to panic that they might be facing something similar to that they had only months ago, or be relieved that something interesting was finally happening. Tony decided on a weird mixture of both. He called his Iron Man suit to him. If it was something like Loki's invasion, he wanted to be prepared.

"Would you like me to inform S.H.I.E.L.D. Sir?"

"No. Let's wait and see what this is first, Jarvis. I don't want Fury sticking his nose in if he doesn't have to."

"But shouldn't Fury know if we're going to be facing another alien invasion Stark?"Bruce interrupted for the first time since the two of them had rushed into the living room.

"And If it's Loki I'll have Jarvis inform Fury immediately, once I punch him in the face for usurping my tower!"

Bruce sighed, but didn't argue further as there was another flash of light. In the next few minutes there were more flashes, increasing in frequency.

"Energy levels increasing exponentially Sir. I would advise you step back."

"I'll be fine Jarvis."

There was another flash of light, significantly brighter than any of those previous. Tony had to cover his eyes, but uncovered them when he heard a loud thud; a body hitting the floor.

"Energy readings have disappeared. Sir, there is an unconscious boy on the floor. Immediate medical assistance is suggested."

Tony's eyes widened when he saw the boy on the floor, bleeding, surrounded by dust and debris. The boy looked uncannily like Loki. He had the hair, and the facial shape. It couldn't be a coincidence that both times tesseract energy readings were seen that Loki, or in this case Loki Jr, emerged. However, this was just a kid, a child. As likely that it was that it was just an illusion of Loki's and that they were going to pay for it later, there was a chance that the boy's appearance was just a coincidence. The boy was hurt; badly judging by the swiftly growing pool of blood surrounding the child.

Tony turned to Bruce, his decision made. "You're a doctor, Fix him!"

"In Nuclear Physics, not medical science!" Bruce protested, but stepped forwards regardless and knelt down next to the boy. Tony knew that the man had spent time in Calcutta helping the people there medically, so Bruce had to have come to learn more than the bare basics. Tony deactivated his suit and stepped closer to Bruce to watch. After a few moments Bruce turned around.

"Tony, we need to stop the bleeding. At the moment his injuries aren't too bad. He has a broken wrist and a plethora of cuts. I don't know about anything internally, but if we don't stop the bleeding from the larger cuts he will bleed out."

Tony processed what had been said and took his shirt off and started ripping it up into strips. "Will this do?" He asked, handing one of them to Bruce, who was attempting to keep pressure on a couple of the larger cuts.

"Perfect."

Tony could do little but just sit and watch as his friend worked on the boy. He felt so useless. Tony decided that he should probably undergo some medical training. He was always finding himself in sticky situations, who knew when it would come in handy. It's not like he didn't have the brain for it, or the time. He had been bored recently without a project to work on, but then again Tony suspected that the mystery surrounding Loki Jr might be occupying him for quite a while.

It seemed like an eternity to Tony before Bruce spoke again.

"I've done all that I can for him. All we need to do is wait for him to wake up, but that could take hours."

"Is it safe to move him?"

Bruce nodded. Tony knelt down next to the boy and gently gathered him up into his arms and frowned at what he discovered. Tony made his way to one of the many spare bedrooms on the floor they were currently on, Bruce alongside him.

"He's way too light." Tony muttered as he walked, knowing that the other man could hear him perfectly well.

"He looks to be about twelve, doesn't he?" Bruce replied.

"But even twelve year olds aren't this light." Tony remarked, and the conversation lulled until they reached their destination a minute later and Tony had placed the boy on the bed.

"We should probably get him out of those tattered clothes." Bruce suggested. He was right. The boy seemed to be wearing a school uniform, but it was only just recognisable as such, so much was the damage to the articles of clothing. Together the men quickly removed the boy's clothing, bar some oversized underpants as those seemed to be miraculously intact, dressing him in some sleepwear that was in the closet. Bruce had had to leave the room halfway through doing so, when the Other Guy threatened to make an appearance, leaving Tony to finish dressing the boy.

What was obvious was that the boy was abused at some point in his life fairly recently for quite a long time, starved, beaten, and who knew what else. Scars covered the boy, many unmistakable as the marks of being beaten with a belt. It sickened Tony that someone would do such a thing to a mere child. His own father hadn't cared for him particularly much, more concerned in trying to find Captain America than he was with raising his own son, and so Tony had been raised mainly by nannies; but he hadn't been abused.

Tony tucked the boy in, his hands lingering on the duvet slightly, before stiffly turning around and walking away. He had some searching to do.

"Jarvis," Tony said once he had left the room, "run facial recognition scans on the kid. We need to know who he is."

"Yes Sir."

"Estimated completion is 3 hours sir."

Tony nodded. He hated waiting for answers but things such as these took time.

"Tell me the moment you make progress Jar."

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Four hours passed, which Tony had spent in his workshop fine tuning the thrusters on the next suit, without hearing a thing from his AI.

"Jarvis?" Tony called.

"Yes Sir?"

"Why haven't you updated me on the kid?"

"You informed me to tell you the moment that progress was made. I have not notified you, Sir, as no progress was made."

"Please tell me again why I thought it was a good idea to program you with sass?" Tony said with a sigh. He had lost track of the amount of times that Jarvis thought it would be appropriate to sass him. The sarcasm was almost as bad. There had been many times in which he had been tempted to rewrite him, but Tony had never gotten around to actually doing so. It would be so much hassle to remove the sass and still having Jarvis working. It was less effort to just put up with the sass.

"Rhetorical question sir?"

"Yes Jarvis. Now what do you mean no progress was made? You completed the scan, didn't you?"

"Yes sir. No matches were found."

"So by all means and purposes, this kid doesn't actually exist…" Things were pointing more and more towards the kid not being of earth. Tony's brain started to go at a million kilometres a second, creating more and more elaborate reasons as to why the kid had just appeared like he had.

"Sorry to interupt your musing sir, but you might be interested to know that the young sir is regaining consciousness."

Looks like some of Tony's questions were about to get answered.

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Harry was confused. Why wasn't he dead? Where was he? What had happened and whose clothing was he wearing? What was he covered in what appeared to be some sort of makeshift bandages? Harry sat up and moved himself so he was sitting on the edge of the bed and realised that the bandages were holding together some pretty painful wounds. He didn't recognise his surroundings at all.

Harry wished that he had his glasses. Looking around he couldn't see his glasses. Although everything was pretty blurry Harry was still able to see enough to get a good grasp of his surroundings. His eyesight was bad, but even if he couldn't see details on things, unless he strained his eyes, he was still able to see.

He was on a bed in a very fancy looking room, although the room had the appearance of not being used often. It was a fairly large room, but there was a lack of personal touch within the room. Perhaps it was someone's spare room? That still didn't answer the question of where on earth he was.

The last thing that Harry remembered was being sucked into the implosion. He evidently hadn't died. Was it some kind of portal? Harry's eyes widened. What if he had appeared in front of muggles? He couldn't afford another breach of the statute of secrecy. He had only just gotten away with not being expelled last time, Harry was sure that the ministry would not be so bad lenient this time round.

The door, which was directly across from the bed, suddenly opened. Harry was immediately on the defensive. He automatically leapt to his feet, ignoring the pain ripping through his body, and reached for his wand. Harry panicked when he realised that neither his wand nor his wrist holster that he usually kept the wand in was present. Harry had no time to look further for his wand, so he took a defensive stance as a man walked into the room.

Something about the man immediately screamed 'I have more money than I know what to do with', despite the man being dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. The man in question was relatively tall and reasonably skinny, with black messy hair not unlike his own. The man was wearing sunglasses, so Harry was unable to gage too much from him.

"So the sleeping beauty awakes!" The man exclaimed, taking off the sunglasses in a large dramatic movement, revealing the man's blue eyes. Harry watched as the man give him a once over. "Calm down short stuff, I'm not going to hurt you."

Harry still looked at the man warily. He still didn't have a clue where he was, or who this man was. Judging by the man's first sentence Harry had been unconscious for a while. How long had he missed?

"Who are you? Where am I? And what's the date?" Harry blurted out, not able to keep the questions to himself. The man might find him rude, but Harry found himself not caring, it wasn't like he was going to be here for very long.

The man blinked in surprise a few times and then let out a deep spurt of laughter. "I am Tony Stark." The man said with a chuckle. The man, Mr Stark, paused for some reason, looking at Harry as if he should recognise him by his name.

"Seriously kid? Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist? No? Iron Man? Wow kid, what rock have you been hiding under?"

This Mr Stark seemed unable to comprehend that Harry had not heard of him. Was the man famous or something? The name Iron Man seemed to be vaguely familiar for some reason, but Harry couldn't think of why. What Harry did note was that the man hadn't answered any of his other questions.

"Mr Stark -" Harry started to say before he was cut off by the man in question.

"Call me Tony, kid, Mr Stark was my father."

"Uhh- Right." It somehow didn't feel quite right to call an adult who he had just met by their first name. "Tony, where am I?"

"Avengers Tower." At Harry's completely blank look Mr Stark carried on speaking. "You haven't heard of the Avengers either? Wow kid. We're in Manhattan, New York City. Big huge tower that belongs to moi that has a large letter A on the side. Kind of hard to miss it."

Harry felt the blood leave his face. New York? How on earth had he ended up in New York? Harry had never been outside of England, let alone America. Had that implosion really transported him that far? How on earth was he going to get back home?

Harry suddenly realised where he had recognised the name Iron Man from. Dudley had had a set of comics about a group of heroes called 'The Avengers' until Aunt Petunia had gotten rid of them for being freakish. It was one of the few times that Dudley had thrown a fit and hadn't won. But The Avengers were just fictional. They were set in a fictional future where there was all sorts of advanced technology. They weren't real.

They weren't real.

"The date." Harry croaked, hoping that what he was thinking wasn't right. "What's the date?"

"February 18th. Kid, are you okay?"

"What year?"

"What?"

"The year!" Harry nearly shouted.

"2013, Geez kid, calm down."

This couldn't be happening. It couldn't be almost twenty years in the future. Time travelling forwards was impossible, let alone jumping that far. He was still the same age as the last moment he remembered from before, which meant that he couldn't have just forgotten twenty years. Had he really somehow managed to find himself inside a fictional world? How was he going to get back home?

Harry took a deep shaky breath and looked towards Mr Stark. The man had concern in his eyes and Harry almost laughed aloud. He must look crazy, having a breakdown on discovering the date.

"What's your name kid?"

"Sorry Mr Stark, you must think me to be incredibly rude. My name is -My name is- " Harry felt the room spinning. There was a pain in his head that had been increasing to the point that it was almost unbearable.

"Well 'My name is' do you normally appear unconscious in people's living rooms? Because I must say that must be an awfully inconvenient way to travel." Mr Stark said with a wink. Harry cursed mentally. Of course the man had witnessed it all.

"I can explain." Harry said, swaying slightly on the spot. Mr Stark's arms twitched out momentarily.

"Maybe you should sit down first kid, you don't look so great." Mr Stark said cautiously.

"I'm fine." Harry said, wanting nothing more than to sit back down again. The room had been spinning for a little while, but he had pushed aside the feel. It would not do to show weakness in front of this man whom he had appeared in front of. "I just need to-"

Harry felt the room tilt on it's axis. Everything was so blurry. Before Harry knew what was going on, he felt his knees give way and everything went black.

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 **PLEASE REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!**

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	2. Chapter 2

**Apologies for the formatting of the last chapter! It wasn't supposed to all be bolded. I think it should be okay now though :) I hope you guys like this chapter!**

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The kid passing out was not a part of the plan.

The kid passing out was definitely not a part of the plan.

Tony had planned to interrogate the kid straight away. As soon as he laid his eyes on the scared kid his plans evaporated. The kid had looked petrified. Tony's reputation might suggest otherwise, but he wasn't cruel. The kid hadn't known who Tony was, or who the Avengers were, which suggested the kid wasn't from earth. Almost everyone had heard of him. The kid had seemed weirdly obsessed with the date though. He had looked as though he was about to pass out when Tony had told him the year. That in itself was weird, but Tony didn't have the time to dwell on any of it. The kid had indeed passed out, and Tony had darted across the room to try and catch the kid before he hit the floor, but he hadn't made it there in time and the kid had hit his head on the corner of the bedside table and his head was now bleeding profusely.

"Jarvis!" Tony shouted, "Get Bruce up here, quickly. Tell him to bring the medical kit."

Tony quickly took his shirt off, pulled the kid into his arms and pressed the screwed up shirt into the wound to try and slow the blood flow. Tony didn't have all that much medical knowledge, but he knew enough to know that it was dangerous for the kid to be losing this much blood. He had most probably passed out in the first place due to the blood loss from earlier.

It was a few minutes before Bruce arrived and blood was still flowing from the wound. Bruce soon had the kid stable again.

The wait for the kid to regain consciousness again seemed to take forever. Tony had gotten bored of watching the kid pretty quickly, so he had instructed Jarvis to tell him when the kid was awake again and headed into his lab. He had fixed all the problems that he could find in his current Iron man suit and fully designed a whole new piece of tech that Clint would probably have a blast with. He had even started construction on the thing.

It had been two whole days since the kid had been conscious.

Tony wasn't worried about the kid. Not at all. Why would he be? It's not like he actually knew Loki Jr at all. He had no reason to worry about the kid. The kid who just wasn't waking up. Tony was taking a coffee break when Jarvis finally informed him that the kid was regaining consciousness. Tony dropped the mug, not caring that it smashed onto the floor. He would clean that up later. He raced up the stairs to the room that they had left the kid in. Tony paused before the door, slowed his breathing down so that he didn't appear out of breath, and entered the room.

The kid looked groggy, and it took the boy a moment to realise that someone had entered the room, despite the fact that Tony hadn't entered at all quietly.

"Hey kid." Tony said, and waited to gauge the boy's reaction. He wasn't disappointed. You could almost see the gears turning in his head. It was a whole minute before the kid spoke.

"Hello Mr Stark."

It was with these words that Tony noticed that the kid had a strong British accent. Not like the old Shakespearean English accent that Thor had, but an accent more like Loki's, but not quite as refined. Had Loki had a kid at some point? The resemblance, even when the kid was wrapped up in bandages was uncanny. Asgardians were supposed to have some form of accelerated healing, and this kid had definitely not shown signs of that.

"You got a name kid?" Tony asked. The kid shifted on the bed, opening and shutting his mouth a few times before speaking.

"Harry Potter."

Tony almost laughed at how generic and overwhelmingly normal the kid's name was. He had been half expecting something grand and fancy. Harry kind of suited the kid though. Harry Potter. Tony smiled.

"Well Harry, I have one question for you." Tony said. He wasn't going to let the kid distract him from asking what he wanted to ask this time around. Tony wanted answers. "How the heck did you get here?"

The kid- Harry's eyes widened and the boy let out a long breath in something that wasn't quite a sigh. It was a few minutes before the kid answered, but Tony was prepared to stand there and wait for as long as was needed for him to get answers.

"I'm not exactly sure Mr Stark." Harry said unsurely. Tony mentally winced at being called Mr Stark, but didn't correct the boy. How could he be unsure? Had someone else sent him here? "You see- I- Where I'm from you're not real."

Well that had been put bluntly. Not real? Tony was pretty sure that he was very real. Tony's skepticism must have shown on his face, because the kid started babbling without taking a pause or much of a breath. Tony didn't catch much of the monologue, apart from something about a statute of secrecy and a bugle? Tony was very curious about this supposed secrecy statute. Tony was known for not being able to keep his nose out of secrets, but a statute? A statute implied government involvement. How had he not come across whatever this was about before now? It seemed to be the kind of thing that SHEILD would have a record of, and Tony made a routine effort to poke his nose around the 'secure' files on SHEILD's database. Tony would have remembered seeing something about a Statute of Secrecy.

"Slow it down kid, I didn't catch a word of that." Tony said with a laugh. This kid had babbled on for what had seemed to be five minutes without stopping or pausing. Tony hadn't heard someone talk so much in so short a time since the last time Pepper berated him for his nonchalance towards business meetings. Harry took a deep but shaky breath in and started talking, this time at a much more understandable speed.

"I don't know how I got here and I don't know how to get back. You're not real from where I'm from. You- You're just a comic book character. I don't know how- I don't understand why I'm not dead. I don't know how I got here. I shouldn't be here. I- I think I might be very, very far from home, Mr Stark. I think I might be from a different universe to this one."

Tony blinked. What? Was this kid crazy? Although, Tony had to hand it to him, it wasn't like he had arrived in a normal manner. The energy pattern that had surrounded Harry's arrival had been eerily similar to that of the Tessaract, which according to Thor was capable of far space travel. Scientist had theorised for decades about the existence of alternative universes. Was it so far fetched that Harry could possibly be from an alternate universe in which he was a fictional character instead of a person?

"Where are you from kid?" Tony asked. He had seen so much craziness in the past few years that honestly interuniversal travel didn't even phase him that much. The kid was either a stellar liar, or was telling him the truth. Tony actually trusted that this kid was telling the truth.

"I grew up in Surrey in England, Mr Stark." The kid bit his bottom lip and blurted something out before Tony could comment on the fact that he had guess the kid's accent correctly.

"Do you believe in magic?"

"Magic is just science that we haven't figured out yet." Tony replied slightly coldly, thinking of Loki and the mess he had caused. He had witnessed what the Asgardians had called magic, but Tony was certain that there was science behind it all that just wasn't known yet. The kid looked uncomfortable at the answer Tony had given. An idea hit Tony, an absolutely crazy idea. But the past half an hour had been chock full of crazy ideas, so what was one more in the mess that this was. What if this kid was from a world in which people on earth had 'magic'? What if the kid had 'magic'? It would explain why he looked so uncomfortable at his cold tone. It was a bit of a leap to take from just an observation, but it was reasonably likely given the context that the subject had been brought up under.

"You have 'magic', don't you?" Tony said softly. Harry nervously nodded. The kid seemed afraid of him now that the subject of magic had been brought up. Why was that?

"Can you show me?"

As much as Tony hated the magic that Loki used, this kid seemed to be different. At least, Tony hoped that the kid was different. Harry shook his head.

"I can't, I don't have a wand. I need a wand to be able to use it." Harry explained, "I didn't appear with a stick about this long?"

The kid held his hands up a reasonable distance apart. Tony shook his head. If the kid had arrived with anything then Tony would have analysed the thing to pieces before Harry had even regained consciousness the first time. Tony did breath a mental sigh of relief. It seemed that Harry's magic was a different kind to Loki's if he needed something else to be able to utilize it, a conduit. Harry seemed shaken by his answer. The kid didn't seem evil, or even the type to try and take any power. Something in the kid made Tony trust him.

"Hey kid, Harry- You're stuck here for the moment, right?" Tony said, pausing for a second as Harry nodded, "You should stay here with me! I've got more room in this tower than even I know what to do with. Good? Good. Great!"

Tony clapped his hands together in victory. Sure, he hadn't really given the kid a choice, but he would be able to keep an eye on the kid better this way. The kid did look a little overwhelmed at the offer of a place to stay. Before Tony could elaborate on his offer Jarvis interrupted them.

"Sir Mr Banner is looking for you. Should I send him up?" Jarvis asked. Harry looked utterly spooked at the voice that was coming from nowhere. Tony laughed at the expression on the kid's face.

"Sure Jar, send him up." Tony said and then decided to explain things to the kid. "J.A.R.V.I.S. is my A.I.."

All Tony received was a blank look. Tony sighed. This kid was going to be a like another capsicle, wasn't he?

"How much do you know about technology?"

"Well, not a lot. I wasn't aloud to use any of my cousin's things and the boarding school that I went to didn't have any technology. Technology and magic don't mix that well." Harry replied. "Did I mention that it was only 1995 in the universe that I came from?"

Tony cringed at the thought. Technology had come along in leaps and bounds in the last ten years, let alone the last twenty. Tony didn't know how different the universes could be technology wise, but evidently they were not as advanced as Tony was, because Harry seemed to not have even heard of A.I.. Tony thought for a few moments on how to explain Jarvis in a way that the kid would understand.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. is basically a computer that can think for itself."

Tony felt a moment of relief when a look of awe came across Harry's face. Evidently there were such things as computers in this other universe. Tony was still excited by the fact that other universes were a legitimate thing. Tony was itching to do a DNA test on the kid to see if his genome was any different to the humans in this universe.

"You can do that with computers?" Harry said, disbelief colouring his awed voice. Tony chuckled. He cast his mind back to the slow juggernauts that were the computers of the 90s. It probably was quite unbelievable if that was the only image of a computer one had.

"Indeed Mr Potter." J.A.R.V.I.S. replied, making Harry jump again. "Sir, Mr Banner should be with you momentarily."

Less than five seconds later there was a quiet knock on the door.

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Harry couldn't believe that he'd told Mr Stark about everything. The man seemed to give off an aura of knowledge. If anyone was going to be able to help him get back, it would be Mr Stark. Harry didn't really know how or why. Perhaps it was the blood loss speaking. Harry couldn't believe that technology could be so advanced. Computers could think for themselves! It was an insane idea, but the disembodied voice was it's own evidence. This universe's technology was worlds away from what Harry had experienced.

Harry was a little nervous to meet this Bruce person. What if he didn't believe him like Mr Stark had done? Harry pushed down the rising panic, forcing himself to try and stay calm. The door opened and a man the polar opposite to what Harry had imagined from the name entered. The name Bruce had Harry thinking of a big beefy mountain of a man. This man wasn't exactly small, he was much taller than Harry was, but he just wasn't what Harry had been expecting. Bruce had brown curly hair and deep brown eyes. Something about how the man held himself reminded Harry of Remus Lupin.

"Hi." Harry said quietly.

"Bruce this is Harry Potter, Harry this is Doctor Bruce Banner. The Doc here fixed you up."

"Hello Harry, How are you feeling?" Bruce asked and Harry wanted to laugh. How was he feeling? Harry was feeling so much and nothing at the same time. There was the pain from his injuries, but that was almost nothing to what he'd felt in the past. He was far away from home. A home where they were all dead. Did he really want to go back there? There wasn't anything left for him in that world anymore. Why should he even try to get back? Sirius was dead. Ron was dead. Hermione was dead. Neville was dead. Ginny was dead. Luna was dead. Tonks was dead. Remus was dead. They were all dead. They were dead and it was completely his fault. He should be dead. He should have died and finally be with his parents. But fate had to play puppet with him and send him to some new universe. A universe in which he was still a freak.

Harry let out a choked laugh. How was he feeling?

"I'm fine." Harry said, giving the automatic answer he gave to everyone who asked.

Mr Stark arched an eyebrow and Harry somehow felt chastised despite the fact that the man hadn't said a word. He was fine though. He wasn't dead, even if he should be.

"It's nice to meet you Doctor Banner."

"Please, call me Bruce." The man said with a smile. Harry smiled back at the man and an awkwardness settled in the room. Nobody talked for a good few minutes and the awkwardness seemed to do nothing but grow. Harry was fine sitting there in silence, despite the awkwardness.

"So Harry!" Mr Stark finally said, seemingly having had enough of the awkward silence. "Do you like toast?"

Harry blinked. What kind of a question was that? "Uh, I guess."

"Wonderful!" Mr Stark exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "How toasted do you like your toast?"

Why all the questions about toast? Harry was more than a little confused by it all. It was admittedly an interesting way to get a conversation going, but toast, really? Harry answered and Mr Stark turned to Bruce with a smug smile on his face. Harry was lost, evidently there was some kind of inside joke being referenced to. Judging by the smug look on Mr Stark's face and the eye roll of a response from Bruce, the thing in question was most likely a debate between the two that Harry had just unwittingly backed Mr Stark up on.

Bruce had pity on him and decided to explain what was going on.

What was the point in even having toast if one was just going to destroy the bread? In actually having the situation explained to him, Harry fully agreed with Mr Stark on the subject. There had been far too many days in the Dursley household in which all he had received to eat was a piece of dry, charcoaled toast. Harry didn't think he would ever be able to eat toast like that outside of that house. At the Dursley's he ate what he was given and was grateful to even get fed. Harry's favourite way to have toast was to have it mediumly toasted so that it was crunchy on the outside, and soft on the inside, and swimming with melted butter so that the piece of toast was floppy. Harry had discovered this over the countless breakfasts at Hogwarts. At the beginning of each school year, toast was pretty much the only breakfast food that was light enough on his stomach after a summer at the Dursley's and so Harry had come to appreciate it.

Harry vocalised his opinion on the destruction of perfectly good bread and Mr Stark punched the air in victory.

"I knew I liked you kid."

"I'm not a kid." Harry mumbled. He was only a few months off of being 16, he was definitely not a kid.

"How old are you?" Bruce asked.

"Almost 16." Harry said defiantly. Bruce and Mr Stark shared a concerned look of disbelief. Harry knew that he was short for his age, but he wasn't that short. Harry could feel the pity rolling off of the pair. He didn't need their pity. Harry opened his mouth and was about to demand that they stop pitying him, but before he could speak he was interrupted by the disembodied computer voice.

"Sir, I thought you would like to be made aware that Thor and what appears to be Loki appeared on the roof moments ago."

Mr Stark bristled upon hearing the name Loki. Mr Stark stood up and stormed out of the room, slamming the door as he went. Who was this Thor and Loki, and what had they done to garner such a reaction to their names? Bruce also looked concerned.

"Do you mind if I-" Bruce said and gestured to the door. Harry guessed that Bruce, who seemed to be the kind of person who was in a constant state of calmness, was probably needed to mediate between Mr Stark and the new arrivals. Harry nodded immediately. He was fed up of being the focus of attention and was happy to have some time to explore his immediate surroundings without someone's eyes watching him.

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Tony was livid. How dare Loki show his face at his tower after what he had done? Tony didn't care that he was with Thor, Tony wanted Loki gone. He wanted Loki off of this planet and as far away as possible. Wasn't Loki supposed to be in prison anyway? Had he broken out, or had he been let out by Odin? From what Tony had heard from Thor the latter was very unlikely. Odin didn't seem the type to bargain with people in his prisons. Was Thor being controlled by Loki?

Tony made it into the living room area before he found them.

"You." Tony spat out, glaring at Loki, "Get out. Leave."

"Man of Iron you must listen-" Thor started to say before Tony interrupted him.

"No. I don't care what it is, but I want him," Tony gestured towards Loki, "gone."

Bruce came into the room and took in the situation and Tony saw his eyes flash green at the sight of Loki.

"Midgard is a risk of destruction if we do not accept my brother's help."

World destruction or Loki gone? Tony knew that he would prefer the latter. But he was one of the people who inhabited the planet, so it's destruction would be a rather large hinderance.

"What is it?" Tony snapped. If this wasn't something that actually needed Loki's input, Tony was not going to be happy.

"The Yggdrasil has been damaged. A hole torn in one of it's many branches. Something came through the breech. We know not what yet, but Loki is one of the few with the ability to track down that which came through the breech. It is not known what horrors could have come through the breech. All that is known is that it is here, on Midgard, and that to have jump universes in such a manner successfully it's powerful enough to destroy this world."

Tony shared a look with Bruce. There was no way that Harry's appearance was a coincidence. Harry wasn't a horror though, he was an abused kid. Harry hadn't admitted anything to then, but the fact that he looked not even 12 when he was supposedly 15 combined with his scars spoke volumes about the life that he must have gone through.

"Would it have been anything like the tesseract portal?" Tony asked, "The breech that is."

"The initial appearance would carry similar energy reading, yes." Loki said, speaking for the first time. The trickster had been unusually quiet. But he had confirmed Tony's suspicions, Harry must have been the thing that had come through the breech. J.A.R.V.I.S. had reported reading eerily similar to that of the tesseract when Harry had made his appearance. There were far too many coincidences.

Tony broke out into a grin. If Harry really was what had come through the breech, then Loki didn't need to stay in his tower!

"Reindeer Games, mind doing your hocus pocus to track the thing that came through down? I think I have the solution to all your problems."

Thor looked at him in complete befuddlement. Tony grinned. He loved being the one that had the answers. Loki closed his eyes and started moving his hands about, hands which started glowing a light purple colour. After a few moments Loki opened his eyes, alarm showing on his face for a moment before being hidden behind a mask of aloofness.

"Well?" Bruce asked.

"You have encountered the breech, haven't you?" Loki said softly. Tony mentally punched the air. He had been correct. Harry was their breech.

"Correctamundo Reindeer games. You can toddle off back to Asgard now, we have everything under control here."

Tony didn't think that he was going to be able to be rid of the Asgardians that easily, but hey, it was worth a shot.

"What came through Man of Iron?" Thor boomed, swinging his hammer threateningly.

"It was just a kid." Bruce said quietly. Tony let out an exasperated sigh. He was going to draw it out, add some dramatic flair to the delivery, but Bruce had ruined it for him.

"A kid came through. It was more like he was pulled through without a choice. Whoever caused the tear wasn't this kid." Tony added. Harry seemed genuinely distraught that he hadn't died. Tony made a mental note to ask the kid about what had happened on the other end before his arrival in his tower.

"Canst I see the little one?" Thor asked. Tony gave the 'God' a calculating look. If he let Loki and Thor see Harry then Loki might leave sooner. Tony could read the Asgardians well enough that he could tell that they were going to be as stubborn as he could be.

"I'll just go let Harry know what's going on." Tony said, eager for any excuse to get away from Loki. "Don't you dare touch anything Reindeer Games."

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 **PLEASE REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!**

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	3. Chapter 3

**I have been completely overwhelmed by the response that I've had to the previous two chapters of this! I've never had OVER 50 reviews for such a small amount of story! Just wow! 3**

 **Hopefully I'll have another chapter up for you soon, but I am almost out of the stuff that I had prewritten for this, so updates might start to be a little slower (not that they've been all that frequent to start with haha) as I've got to write enough to then be worth uploading here. Life, being life, likes to get in the way of my writing time unfortunately.**

 **I hope that you guys enjoy this chapter! xx**

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Tony went back to the room that Harry had been in, only to find it empty. There was no Harry in the bed. No Harry anywhere in the room. Tony was about to panic when he heard a flush from down the corridor. Tony breathed a sigh of relief. Why hadn't the kid used the ensuite attached to the room rather than the communal toilet down the hall?

It was another minute before Harry slowly made his way back into the room, limping slightly. Tony wanted to help the kid, but the determined look in Harry's eyes made Tony reconsider his actions.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, well, make that 30 seconds…"

"Sure Mr Stark." Harry replied with a grin. "29, 28, 27.."

"Well hello Mr Sassy, where did you come from?" Tony exclaimed with a laugh, "You up for a couple of visitors?

Tony mentally laughed at the confused look on the kid's face. "Thor and his menace of a brother think they know how you ended up here." He said as an explanation.

"Uh- Sure?" Harry replied. The kid looked utterly baffled, but seemed to be taking everything in his stride. It must royally suck to find yourself in the middle of a world that isn't yours. Tony blinked. Capsicle must have felt pretty similar to Harry when he first woke up. He'd have to introduced the two if the kid stayed around.

"Jar?"

"Sending them down now, Sir."

Tony loved being able to be lazy and not having to go and fetch them. It was so much better having J.A.R.V.I.S. around to do it for him. Harry limped over to the bed and let himself fall face first onto it. Tony chuckled at the kid's behavior. A few moments later there was a knock on the doorframe and the three men walked in. Harry had sat up on the bed when Bruce had knocked.

"Hello." Harry said quietly.

"Greetings young one!" Thor boomed, causing the kid to flinch. Loki didn't say anything in greeting, just stared rather creepily at Harry.

"Right. Reindeer Games, do your mumbo jumbo."

Loki turned to glare at him and Tony just grinned. Annoying Loki was so much fun! Even better when Loki had no choice but to do as he said. Loki closed his eyes and started moving his hands about. Loki's hands started glowing again, but interestingly enough Harry also started glowing the same colour. It confirmed Tony's theory though, and oh how Tony loved being right.

"Wait?!" Harry said, his voice shaking slightly, but it was filled with hope. "You-You can do magic?"

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. The kid was going to bond with Loki over magic, wasn't he? Why couldn't the kid be uninterested in Loki? Or even dislike him? Dislike would be good! Dislike would be very good! If the kid got on with Loki, and the kid was staying here, then it would be more likely for Loki to make more visits. Tony didn't want that thing anywhere near his tower, let alone in it.

"Indeed." Loki said, raising an eyebrow. Thor looked as confused as Bruce did. Tony had forgotten that Bruce hadn't been in the room when Harry had told him about his magic.

Tony smirked.

"Oh, did I forget to mention that Harry here can do magic?" Tony drawled. Loki and Thor both turned their heads to look at him in shock. Tony swore he heard someone's neck crack. Tony just laughed. The two turned back to stare at Harry in sinc.

"Where are you from Seidr?" Thor boomed.

"Uhh, Earth?" Harry said, "But not this earth. In my universe everyone in this room is fictional; characters in a comic book. I don't know how I got here, and I don't know how to get back."

"Prove it." Loki said. "Prove that you have magic."

Harry awkwardly explained how he relied on a wand to Loki. Tony felt like laughing first of all at Harry's awkwardness and secondly as the affronted look upon Loki's face. Tony wished that he had some popcorn, watching the two interact was hilarious, even if it did mean that he had to put up with having Loki in his tower for longer.

"Have you never used your magic without a … wand?"

"No- Well, I guess I did when I was younger. We have what we call accidental magic as children. But-"

Loki interrupted Harry by waving a hand, causing one of the pillows on the bed to hit Thor in the face.

"If you could do it as a child you are able to do it now. You didn't force yourself here?" Loki asked urgently. Tony sighed. He had already told them that. But had they listened?

"No!" Harry exclaimed vehemently, clenching his fists in anger.

"Then you cannot go enormous level of power needed to rip another hole in the Yggdrasil is something even I have not the power to do." Loki said and the blood seemed to leave Harry's face at Loki's statement. "Attempting to do so would most likely destroy both of our universes."

Maybe it was best that Harry stayed. Tony would rather avoid total annihilation if he could. Staying unannihilated was a good plan; a great plan even.

"There's nothing for me to go back to." Harry muttered, but Tony knew that all of them in the room could hear him. "They're all dead now anyway."

Tony grimaced. How does one comfort a kid who's just lost everything and everyone he's ever known? Tony normally left the comforting thing to others.

"Well, welcome to Earth kid." Tony said bluntly, causing Bruce who had just stood in the corner for the whole encounter to facepalm. Tony smirked. It was just too easy.

"Right. You've met Harry. Now get out of my tower and back to Asgard."

Loki sneered at him, and Tony just smirked back.

"The All Father will want to hear of this development." Thor boomed. Tony rolled his eyes mentally. Did he really have to state the obvious? Tony bit back the 'Captain Obvious' remark that he wasted to make, but it would be wasted on the Asgardian who would want it then explained to him. Tony would much rather Loki be gone as soon as possible. All four of them left Harry alone in the room. Tony was supposed to have stayed with the kid as Bruce escorted Loki and Thor from the building, but Tony didn't trust Loki to not try some funny business. Harry was a big boy, he would be fine by himself for a few minutes, right?

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Harry was feeling numb. He knew that he had no clue of how to even start to figure out how he got here, let alone how to get back, but to have it confirmed so coldly was a stab to the gut. It wasn't as if there was anything left there for him now. Voldemort had most probably won the Battle at the Ministry, and even so everyone that he had cared about had died in the battle. There was nobody to go back to. They were all dead and it was entirely his fault. He had killed them. If he hadn't have been so stupid as to fall for such an obvious trap then none of them would be dead and he wouldn't be stuck here. He was a monster. He had killed people. He had killed Death Eaters in the battle. They were losing and people were dying and Harry just couldn't take it anymore; so he used darker spells and didn't try to incapacitate them. He would go for the kill. He would kill them before they could kill him. He was a monster and Harry hated what he had become.

Harry let himself slide off of the edge of the bed and onto the floor, ignoring the pain that flared at the sudden movement. Harry noticed that his hands were shaking. Why were they shaking? Harry concentrated on trying to keep his hands still, but then realised that it wasn't just his hands, but his whole body that was shaking. Why couldn't he stop them shaking? He swallowed and rested his head on his palms. Why did Hermione and Ron have to die? Why did Sirius have to die? He should have known that he was bound to lose someone else. His life was never that easy. He could have never expected to be thrown into another universe, but he should have at least suspected something. Fate wouldn't have given up on her favourite chew toy quite yet.

The bedroom door opened and instantly Harry was on his feet, crouched painfully behind the far side of the bed, hand grasping for his wand. Harry had a moment of sheer panic as he realised that he didn't have his wand. He didn't have any way in which to defend himself. Harry took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. Harry looked towards the door.

It was Mr Stark.

The man looked around the room and looked like was about to leave the room when he noticed Harry behind the bed. Mr Stark frowned, tilted his head slightly and entered the room fully.

"Harry?" He said softly. He sounded concerned, which confused Harry. Harry glanced downwards in shame. He didn't want Mr Stark to see him like this; to see him this weak.

He was already enough of a burden as it was. Mr Stark approached him and tried to look Harry in the eye and Harry flinched away from the eye contact; away from the veiled pity that he knew would be in those eyes. Mr Stark sighed and Harry flinched away from the noise.

"Crap. I don't know how to do this. Harry, you don't have to talk to me if you don't want to. I'm not going to trap you in here and make you tell me what is bothering you. However you need to talk to someone. Whether that's myself, Jarvis, Bruce or even just a journal or something. But you need to talk about it to something. I've made that mistake and it's not pretty."

Harry looked up at the man in shock. It was almost as if Mr Stark cared, but Harry decided that he must be mistaken. He had only met the man earlier a couple of days ago, and he had been unconscious for most of that time. Mr Stark couldn't have come to care for him enough in that short space of time. He was only helping out of some weird guilt or sense of duty. He couldn't care.

Mr Stark's words reminded Harry of something Hermione had said to him a few months ago. They had had an argument, both unleashing their bottled feelings of general frustration at each other. After they had both calmed down, Hermione had made Harry promise to not bottle up his feelings. Harry clenched his teeth. Why did Hermione, even in death, always have a point in what she said?

Harry suddenly felt extremely vulnerable. He had started shaking again. Harry closed his eyes, clenched his fists and tried futilely to stop the shaking. Why couldn't he stop the shaking. Mr Stark swore and a few moments later drew him into a hug. Harry immediately stiffened and waited for the man to let go. He needed to let go. A few minutes passed and Mr Stark didn't release Harry from the embrace.

Harry gave in.

As soon as he relaxed into the hug it was like a barrier inside of him that was keeping his emotions internal broke and the tears that had only been slightly leaking through evolved into sobbing. Harry expected the man to pull away in disgust and was left confused when the man didn't. Mr Stark just held him and let him cry his heart out into his chest.

Once Harry's sobs had subsided Mr Stark finally released Harry from the hug and sat down next to him on the floor. He placed a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder and Harry gave the man a watery half-smile.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Mr Stark asked. Harry opened his mouth to say no, but found himself hesitating. Could he really confide in a stranger? The aforementioned stranger had just let him soak his shirt with tears and was seemingly not judging him for doing so. Said stranger was also letting him live with them for the foreseeable future. Perhaps it might be a good idea, besides, he had promised Hermione that he wouldn't bottle up his feelings and talking about them was one way to do so, or so Hermione had said.

"I don't even know where to start." Harry mumbled looking down. He couldn't believe that he was even considering it.

"The beginning is usually a good place to start." Mr Stark suggested sarcastically. Harry fought back a smile at the sarcasm. Harry thought about what he was going to say for a minute, only remembering half way through doing so that he didn't have to keep the story muggle friendly, as Mr Stark already knew about his Harry told him; and Mr Stark listened without interruptions, which was a little odd from what Harry had observed of the man so far.

Harry told him how he had survived the unblockable Killing Curse at age one. How he had lost his parents and defeated a Dark Lord temporarily in the process. How he had defeated a mountain troll at age 11. How Harry had killed a basilisk at age 12 and how he hadn't escaped injury in that fight. An injury which was luckily healed by a phoenix's healing tears before the venom had killed him.

Harry told Mr Stark how he had driven off over 100 Dementors, how he had saved the Philosopher's Stone. He told Mr Stark how he had out-slytherin'd a slytherin into freeing their abused House Elf, and how helped his convicted but innocent Godfather escape from the authorities. Harry told Mr Stark how he had participated in and won the Tri-Wizard Tournament, how he had watched Cedric die and how he had witnessed the rebirth of Voldemort.

Harry told Mr Stark about how he had set up an illegal defence group. He told Mr Stark how he had broken into the Ministry of Magic and how he had watched those that he loved die. Harry had watched them all die. He had watched them die and it was all his fault that they were dead. How they were all gone and everything was different.

"Harry Potter, look at me."

Harry took a deep breath and opened his eyes. The dreaded pity was in Mr Stark's eyes, but empathy and sadness were also there.

"I'm not going to pretend that I know what you're going through. It's always hard to lose the ones we love. But the ones we love never truly leave us. They are with us in here." Mr Stark placed his hand over Harry's heart and tears sprung to Harry's eyes as the man echoed the words of his godfather unknowingly. The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes before Harry decided to speak.

"Thanks Mr Stark." he said with a small smile. It felt strangely good to have told someone. It was as though the feeling of the whole world pressing down upon him had lessened fractionally.

"No problemo kid, I'm happy to listen whenever you need someone to talk to. But please, enough with the Mr Stark! Did you know that my name is actually Tony?" The man said sarcastically.

He had? Harry had no recollection of the man ever asking for him to refer to him as such.

"Sorry." He murmured. Mr Stark drew him into a one-armed hug. Harry let his head fall and rest upon the older man's shoulder. Harry briefly wondered if this was the kind of thing that a father did for their son, but immediately banished the thought from his head. Thoughts like that only ended up in him getting hurt when people died.

Harry didn't know how long they spent sitting there in a companionable silence, but sitting on the floor became increasingly uncomfortable as his butt fell asleep. Mr Star- Tony made a long high-pitched grumbling noise, making Harry jump slightly.

"As much as I love sitting on the floor with you kid, I do prefer blood actually in my limbs. I don't know about you, but my butt went into dreamland about ten minutes ago."

Harry laughed with Mr St-Tony and the two of them stood up and both shook their limbs to try and get their blood flowing again. Harry heard his stomach grumble loudly. Harry's eyes widened. He realised that he hadn't eaten in the past three days. He had eaten a little, but not much, on the morning of the battle and he'd been unconscious for the past couple of days.

Mr-Tony must have heard his stomach growl in hunger too, as the man asked him if he liked pizza. Harry hated to admit it, but he had never eaten pizza before. Harry had made pizza an innumerable number of times, but Dudley always ate it all and so there were never any leftovers for Harry to have. Hogwarts hadn't served the food either.

"Never had pizza?" Tony exclaimed, seemingly scandalised by the notion. "Jarvis, place an order at the usual place for every type of pizza that they serve!"

"Mr Stark you don't need to do that I-"

"Nuh-uh." Mr Stark said, waggling his finger at Harry. "I thought I told you to call me Tony? Anyway, Bruce eats lots, as do I and one of my favourite things to snack on is cold pizza, so it doesn't matter if we don't eat it all. I run on caffeine, sarcasm, and cold pizza. So I don't want to hear any complaints from you mister, I'm educating you in the way of being American."

"But-" Harry protested. Pizza had to be expensive to have delivered in. He didn't want Mr Stark to spend that kind of money on something just to 'educate him'!

"No buts! Now are you feeling up to a tour? If you're staying here with me then you'll need to know your way around the tower."

Harry agreed tentatively to the tour. He didn't particularly want to, but he didn't want to say no to the man after all that he was doing for him. Mr Stark showed him around the corridor just outside the room he had been in, explaining that the corridor was just full of spare bedrooms. How big exactly was this tower if one had a whole corridor of spare bedrooms?

Harry soon found out that the answer was absolutely huge. Tony spent the next half an hour very briefly showing him around just some of the floor that they were on. Apparently there was another 12 floors of the tower that were Mr Stark's living space. Although Mr Stark only personally used things on two of the floors. Harry couldn't wrap his mind around needing to have 10 floors of unused space. The man owned the rest of the giant of a building, but the rest was used to run his company in New York. Harry had very quickly found out that Mr Stark was a multimillionaire. Harry couldn't even begin to comprehend having that much money.

As the two of them made their way into what looked like a living room space they bumped into Bruce. Bruce scolded Mr Stark for dragging Harry around the tower. Harry would have denied being dragged, but Harry felt exhausted from the excursion.

Harry collapsed onto one of the sofas, happy to stop for a while. It was at that point that the pizza arrived, much to both Harry and Bruce's chagrin. Neither of them understood why Tony needed one pizza of every type. Wouldn't have a few different varieties have been enough? The pizza boxes filled the length of the room. Harry felt slightly overwhelmed. How on earth would he choose which flavours to eat? Harry had absolutely no clue what was even on some of the pizzas. What if he didn't like what was on one of the pizzas? He couldn't just spit it out. What if Mr Stark and Bruce judged him on his choice of pizza?

Harry felt a hand on his and almost jumped out of his seat. When had Mr Stark moved across the room? Mr Stark had a plate with a couple of pieces of pizza on. One of the pieces of pizza had some various meats on it, and the other didn't seem to have anything extra on it, just cheese. Harry went to push up his glasses, remembering only when his hand didn't meet anything that his glasses hadn't arrived with him.

"Why don't you see if you like these first?" Mr Stark said, holding out the plate to Harry.

Harry found himself giving the man a grateful smile. "Thanks." He murmured. Harry picked up the pizza piece without the meat on it and took a bite out of the end of it. It was very greasy, but it didn't taste bad. Harry swallowed his mouthful and smiled at Mr Stark, who was waiting eagerly on his judgement.

"It's amazing." Harry said softly, and took a bite of the meat pizza and couldn't help but let sounds of enjoyment slip out of him. Harry now knew what all the fuss was about. This stuff was amazing! Harry took another three bites in quick succession. He could hear somebody chuckling from across the room, but Harry didn't care. Harry finished the slices on his plate and ended up trying 4 other types of pizza, having once slice of each, and discovered that he didn't dislike any of them, but the Hawaiian pizza was definitely his favourite, closely followed by the meaty one that he had tried second that he hadn't caught the name of.

Mr Stark and Bruce ate a startling amount of pizza, making his six slices look like a mere bite in comparison. What had impressed Harry was that Bruce was able to eat triple the amount of pizza that Tony was capable of eating. Harry made a mental note that when he cooked anything for the two that he would need to cook a Dursley portion for each of the men. Bruce nor Mr Stark were fat like Dudley and Vernon were though, so the men must work off the food through exercise somehow.

Harry enjoyed eating with the two men. They had engaged Harry in some conversation, but had let it go when they realised that Harry was happier to just listen to their conversation. Mr Stark and Bruce had gotten distracted and had eventually started talking about something that Harry assumed was science. It sounded sciencey at the very least. Harry had no clue what they were on about. He had the scientific knowledge of a below average eleven year old from in the nineties. The things that Mr Stark and Bruce were discussing were well beyond Harry's scientific knowledge, but Harry enjoyed listening to them anyway.

Full, comfy, and warm, Harry closed his eyes, listening to the men debate as he gradually slipped into a peaceful sleep.

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 **PLEASE REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!**

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	4. Chapter 4

**This is the last of the stuff that I had prewritten, so updates will be a lot slower now. I'm not completely happy with how this chapter turned out, but I honestly don't have the patience to figure out what's bothering me about it haha.**

 **I hope you guys like it?**

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Tony was baffled by Harry. The kid had been through so much. His life sounded like a fantasy movie, where bad things happen to the good guy, who prevails despite the odds. But Harry was a human, a wizard, but a human; and humans didn't just come away from things like that unscathed. Tony would know given his past. Harry didn't seem to have broken. That kid was stronger that Tony could ever hope to be. Tony knew he wasn't good at the emotional side of things, but somehow he didn't seem to have mucked this one up yet.

Tony smiled as he looked at the sleeping kid.

"Tony, what are you doing?" Bruce said from across the room.

"Contrary to popular belief, I know exactly what I'm doing!"

"He's not a toy, Tony, he's a kid."

"A messed up wizard kid, I know the lowdown greenie." Tony sighed. Did he really have to vocalise it? "I want to help him Bruce. He's a screwed up kid who's traveled in space and time. Hey, do you think he has two hearts?"

Bruce glared at him and Tony held his hands up in mock surrender. "Okay Grumpy-pants, no jokes. Look, he doesn't have anyone left. I know how that feels. You know how that feels. We're the Avengers, how can we not help? Gods, aliens, wizards, other dimensions, other universes. I'm just a man in a can. I can sure as hell try though."

Tony didn't wait to see what Bruce would say in response. Tony turned away from the man and carefully scooped Harry up into his arms. The kid was far from normal, but then again, neither was Tony. Who wants to be normal? Normal was boring. Tony carried Harry to bed, putting him in the room that Tony guessed had become Harry's now. Would the kid want to redecorate? The kid also needed clothes. Tony mentally sighed as he tucked Harry under the covers at the thought of all that shopping. Tony didn't understand why women like Pepper liked shopping so much, you go in, you see the thing, you buy it! It didn't need to be the long winded process that a lot of women made it. Tony made his way back to his lab and suddenly swore.

How on earth was he going to explain this to Pepper?

"Jarvis, call Pepper."

"Yes Sir."

It was better that he call her and warn her than for Pepper to turn up at the tower to find Harry there and freak out. Tony had had enough of screwing things up when it came to not telling Pepper things.

"Tony? Are you okay? What's happened?" Pepper asked as soon as she answered the call.

"Does something need to happen for me to call the most wonderful person I know?" Tony said, raising his eyebrow even though she couldn't see him.

"Tony." Pepper said in an annoyed tone. Did compliments count for nothing these days? He could almost hear the facial expression that Pepper was sure to be wearing.

"Fine. I may or may not have ended up with a teen living in the Tower with me?" Tony admitted.

"What?" Pepper exclaimed, and Tony could hear the exasperation and annoyance in her voice. "Please tell me he's not your son."

"He's not my son. He popped out of a tear in the fabric of the universe."

"Very funny Tony, now where did he come from?"

"Oh, I'm one hundred percent serious." Tony said and he heard Pepper sigh.

"Only you Tony, only you."

"Aren't I such a special cookie Pepper!" Tony drawled sarcastically. "His name his Harry and he doesn't have anywhere else to go Pepper. He can't get back, Loki confirmed it. He's stuck here Pepper."

Pepper sighed again and Tony knew that he had won her over.

"Great! So how do you feel about taking him shopping?"

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Harry awoke quickly and was confused. Where was he? A moment later Harry remembered about being flung into another universe. Why was he not on the sofa where he had fallen asleep? Harry sat up and soon realised that he was back in the room that he had first woken up in. But how had he gotten there? A few minutes passed and Harry realised that either Mr Stark or Bruce had to have carried him back whilst he was asleep. Harry flushed at the thought of someone carrying him to bed. Couldn't they have just left him on the sofa? Wasn't that the kind of things that parents were supposed to do for their child? Strangers weren't supposed to carry each other to bed. As nice as Mr Stark and Bruce had been, the two of them were still utter strangers to Harry. Harry didn't understand why one of them had done it.

Harry shook the thoughts out of his head and got out of the bed. He glanced over at the clock on the wall and realised that it was just past half past six in the morning. Harry smiled to himself and decided that he was going to make Mr Stark and Bruce breakfast. Hopefully there would be ingredients in the cupboard for something. What was the name of the computer voice thing? Harry couldn't remember what it was called.

"Um-" Harry said out loud, the thing could hear him from here, right? "Mr Computer voice thing? Are you there?"

"Greetings Mister Potter. How may I be of assistance to you sir?"

Harry jumped at the voice, despite having expected it. There was just something weird about hearing responses from something that he couldn't see.

"Sorry, what was your name?"

"I was named Just Another Rather Very Intelligent System, but I am otherwise referred to as J.A.R.V.I.S."

Harry blinked at the strange name and after a moment realised that the name was an acronym, not unlike S.P.E.W, but Harry had the distinct notion that Mr Stark had decided on the acronym first and had then found words that fit into that.

"Jarvis?" Harry asked hesitantly, "Is there food in the kitchen?"

"The kitchen is fully stocked Mr Potter, would you like me to direct you there?"

"Yes please Jarvis." Harry replied. It was so odd to be talking to something that he could not see. Jarvis directed Harry to the kitchen. Harry smiled. It seemed that Mr Stark and Bruce had yet to awaken. Harry got to work cooking a breakfast of epic proportions. He had seen how much pizza the two men had consumed yesterday whilst Harry had been awake. They had probably consumed even more after Harry had fallen asleep. Harry wanted to make sure that there was enough food for them to be able to eat their fill. Harry made a whole host of different food, not knowing any preferences that the men had. Harry was just taking the muffins that he had made out of the oven when he heard an exclamation of surprise from the other side of the room. Harry set the muffin tray down and looked up to see that Mr Stark was the one who had arrived.

"Good morning Mr Stark."

"What on earth is all this?" Mr Stark exclaimed.

"Well there's this meal at the beginning of the day that most people tend to take a part of called breakfast." Harry said sarcastically, arching one of his eyebrows at the man. Mr Stark let out a chuckle.

"Are you always this sarcastic in the mornings, or am I just special? I thought I told you to call me Tony, kid!"

"Sarcasm? I know of no such thing." Harry said, trying to keep a straight face. He picked up one of the muffins, taking it out of the tray and putting it on the cooling rack.

"If those are blueberry I will love you forever, kid."

Harry lost the fight with the grin he was trying to suppress. The muffins were indeed blueberry. Mr Stark bounced across the room and snatched up one of the muffins from the rack.

"You beautiful, sexy thing!" Mr Stark exclaimed, talking to and caressing the muffin before he took a bite out of it. Mr Stark moaned and Harry's grin widened. He never got any feedback from the Dursleys about his cooking, so to witness such an obvious response to his cooking was gratifying.

"I take it you like them Mr St-Tony." Harry said with a laugh.

"Harry, Harry, Harry. That was a muffin from the heavens. Please tell me that the rest of this is just as amazing."

"I don't know about that. It's edible?" Harry replied.

"Jarvis, get Bruce to get his green butt in here now. This spread isn't going to go to waste."

"Yes sir."

It took less than a minute for Bruce to arrive. Mr Stark in the meantime had successfully stolen another two muffins whilst Harry had been finishing cooking the bacon. The man walked into the room and did a double take.

"Where did all this food come from?" Bruce asked.

"I-er- I made it." Harry replied, rubbing the back of his neck, careful not to rub over any of the barely healed cuts there.

"All of it?"

Harry nodded.

"Wow." Bruce said as he sat down at the table that Harry had set all the food on. Harry quickly transferred the hot foods onto the table, hoping that it wouldn't be cold by the time that it was eaten. Harry hovered by the island as Mr Stark and Bruce piled food onto their plates, not sure as to whether they would want him eating at the table with them. The Dursleys never had.

"Harry Potter, sit your butt down and eat some of this heavenly food." Tony ordered, waving a rasher of bacon in the air. "Edible… Hah!"

Harry sat down and ate with them. It was odd for Harry to actually be eating food that he had made. Dudley and Uncle Vernon had always made sure that there was never anything left for him. It was nice to be able to eat what he wanted.

"So Harry, how would you feel about going shopping today?" Tony asked once they had all finished eating. "You need some clothes of your own."

Harry wasn't overly enthralled by the notion of clothes shopping, but he supposed that he couldn't live in the pajamas that he had woken up in forever.

"Uh- Sure, I guess." Harry replied, not entirely sure what he was signing himself up for.

"Wonderful! Pepper will take you out later."

Harry blinked a couple of times. Who on earth was Pepper? Harry's confusion must have shown on his face because Bruce took it upon himself to explain that Pepper was Mr Stark's girlfriend and the CEO of Mr Stark's company. Harry hoped that he got on with the woman. He would hate to make things awkward for Mr Stark.

Mr Stark had left at one point after finishing eating, returning moments later with what appeared to be a t-shirt, a pair of jeans and a pair of black trainers. Mr Stark handed the clothes to Harry. He needed something to wear for the shopping trip. Harry could hardly walk about New York in pajamas. The clothes were all far too big for him, but luckily the jeans didn't fall down like his hand me downs from Dudley always had without the liberal use of a belt. The shoes were also far too big, but Harry was used to that and made do. Harry made his way back to the living space.

It wasn't long before the woman in question appeared. Harry felt the air leave his lungs. Harry didn't know exactly what he had been expecting the woman to look like, but Harry hadn't expected her to look so much like his mother. It was uncanny. Pepper's nose was different to Lily's, and the woman's eyes were a different shade of green, but those were the only visual differences between the two. It was like the multiverse was trying to mock him.

"Hello, you must be Harry!" The woman said, holding a hand out to him to shake, but Harry just stood there dumbstruck. Harry blinked back the slight tears that had dared to try and make an appearance. It was just so weird to have someone physically in front of him that looked so much like his mother.

Harry jumped at the sudden touch to his arm that he felt. He turned and realised that it was just Mr Stark.

"Are you okay, kid? You look a little spooked."

"I'm fine." The automatic response left Harry's mouth without a second thought. Mr Stark raised his eyebrow and Harry gave the man a sheepish smile. Was it really that obvious that he wasn't all that fine?

"I just-" Harry glanced back towards Pepper and let out the air in his lungs. "She- She looks just like my mother." Harry muttered, too low for anyone but Mr Stark to hear. Mr Stark winced audibly.

"That has got to suck kid." Mr Stark replied quietly, squeezing Harry's shoulder gently. Pepper looked intrigued by their exchange, but didn't question anything.

"Sorry Miss-?"

"Potts, Virginia Potts. But please, call me Pepper." The woman said with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you Pepper, I'm Harry."

"Are you ready to hit the shops? It's best to get out there before it starts getting too busy." Pepper asked, gesturing towards the lift.

"Sure." Harry replied not sure what else to say.

Harry's introduction to Pepper had been overwhelming to say the least and so Harry found himself not saying much in the elevator ride to the ground floor. The elevator journey was a lot quicker than Harry thought it was going to be, seeing how high up they were. Harry put that down to the advanced technology that this universe had.

They entered the street and Harry was overcome by the strangeness of it all, his thoughts swirling at the idea of such amazing technology. The stark difference to the tech in his universe was immediately evident. Harry couldn't even begin to describe half of the things that he could see. Harry vaguely registered Pepper leading him down the street and into one of the many shops that were around.

Harry followed Pepper around in a slight daze, overwhelmed by how different everything was. He tried on a seemingly endless amount of clothing, whilst occasionally making small talk with the woman. They would both wander about the shops, meeting up at the changing rooms with a pile of clothing each, Pepper's pile significantly larger that Harry's every time. Harry would then try on every item of clothing and picked out the ones that he liked. It was annoying not being able to read any of the price tags, not having his glasses. Harry also declined any shirts that had smaller writing on, as he was unable to read what any of it said. Bigger letters were easy to read with how terrible Harry's eyesight was, smaller letters not so much.

Around midday the two of them left one of the shops that they had been in and were going to get some lunch at a local cafe, but Harry was separated from Pepper in the mad rush of people on the street. Harry found himself unable to move against the flow of people and it wasn't long before Harry had absolutely no clue where he was. Harry wandered for a couple of minutes before he found a large grassy expanse with trees dotted about. Harry was intrigued by it, there had not been a lot of plants about the city. What was this place?

Harry followed the pavement along and wandered into the green expanse and noticed a sign that read 'Central Park'.This place didn't look much like the parks that Harry had seen in Surrey. There were no swings or slides for one, and there was also a distinct lack of tarmac in the place. The only tarmaced surface was the winding path that Harry found himself wandering along aimlessly on. After wandering about for what seemed to be forever Harry sat down on a bench and watched some birds swimming in the large pond opposite the bench.

Now that Harry had finally sat down the exhaustion that had been slowly growing throughout the day caught up with him. Harry's aching limbs felt heavy. Harry blinked hard and shook his head in an attempt to push away his exhaustion, but couldn't stop himself yawning. Harry found it harder and harder to keep his eyes open. He shouldn't be so tired, it was still the middle of the day! Harry rubbed his eyes and dug his fingernails into his cheek. Harry registered the slight pain, but the action did nothing to make him any more awake.

Despite Harry's attempts otherwise, he soon fell asleep, half slumped on the bench.

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Tony wasn't worried. Why on earth would he be worried? It wasn't as if Pepper would let anything happen to Harry; that woman would stick to Harry like glue. Nothing was going to happen to them whilst they were out. Everything was going to be absolutely fine.

"Sir, Director Fury is requesting access to the tower." Jarvis said, interrupting Tony's train of thought. Tony had wondered how long it was going to be until Eyepatch arrived to question what was going on. S.H.E.I.L.D. would have definitely have noticed the energy signal given off when Harry had arrived. Tony was actually surprised that Fury hadn't poked his nose in sooner.

"Tell him I'm not home."

"Apologies, sir" Jarvis said as the elevator door opened and Nick Fury stormed onto the room. Tony had fully expected him to shout as he usually did, demanding an explanation, but all Fury did was arch an eyebrow at Tony.

"Stark. Care to explain the energy signal coming from this building a few days ago?" Fury asked calmly, too calmly. Tony narrowed his eyes at the man. What bigger plan did Eye patch have going on?

"Would you believe me if I told you I invented a multi-dimensional pop tart?"

All Tony received in response was another raised eyebrow from Fury.

"Everything is fine."

"So Thor and Loki were on earth for absolutely no reason at all?"

"That is correct."

Before Fury could question Tony any further he was interrupted by Jarvis.

"Sir, Miss Potts is calling you."

"Put her on loud speaker Jar."

"He's gone Tony. I lost him. I lost Harry. He was there one moment and gone the next and I can't find him. He's only a kid and I lost him." Pepper sounded upset. For Pepper to sound audibly upset meant that she must be really shaken. Pepper didn't show strong emotions other than anger over the phone generally.

"I'll find him Pep, don't worry."

Tony ended the conversation with Pepper and turned away from Fury's questioning look. He didn't dance to Fury's fife and didn't have to answer to him. Having S.H.E.I.L.D. looking for Harry would come in handy, but at the same time Tony didn't want Harry to be on their radar quite yet. Unfortunately it looked as if Fury wasn't going to give him a choice. Tony mentally compared his options. Why did asking Fury for help seem to be looking like the best option?

"How fast can you find a teenager in New York?" Tony asked, hating every word that left his mouth. He didn't dare even look at Fury, knowing that there would be a smug look in that eye.

"Half hour. Who do you need to find, Stark?"

Tony could hear the raised eyebrow this time. He was going to have to tell him. It wasn't like S.H.E.I.L.D. wouldn't have found out eventually, but Tony didn't want them treating Harry like some freakish experiment. Tony knew that S.H.E.I.L.D. wasn't as saintly as it made itself out to be.

"Jarvis, bring up footage from breakfast this morning." Tony said with a sigh. He hated that he needed Fury's help on this one. "Harry's a kid that's staying at the tower. He appeared four days ago. From what Harry, Thor, and Loki have said, we figured out that Harry was ripped from his universe and shoved into this one. Pepper took him out to get some clothes. He's still recovering from his injuries and now he's gone. Find him."

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 **PLEASE REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!**

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	5. Chapter 5

**Hello! It's been a while, hasn't it! A lot has happened since I last uploaded. I found myself stumbling my way into a wonderful relationship and I'm getting married in February, so most of my writing time has completely disappeared!**

 **So, enjoy this chapter, but there might not be another one for a little while. Not abandoning this at all, but I'm not going to have a lot of writing time over the next few months!**

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Fury was annoyingly efficient. Tony had left the man in the tower and was out as Iron Man looking for Harry. Tony wasn't having any luck in finding the kid. Jarvis took time to run facial recognition scans, time that Tony didn't have. Ten minutes after he left the tower Jarvis informed Tony that he had a call from Fury.

"Talk to me eyepatch. Any news on Harry?"

"Central Park. Near the Glen Span Arch; on a bench; asleep."

Tony hung up on Fury and breathed a sigh of relief. Harry was okay. Harry was fine. Tony had been searching in entirely the wrong direction. Harry was safe. Tony didn't quite know how he had come to care for the kid so much in such little kid seem to have a way of wriggling his way into your heart, and the kid didn't seem to even realise that he was doing it. Tony made it to Central Park in less than two minutes and scanned the ground for any sign of Harry. Why did Central Park have to have so many benches? It was another minute before Tony found Harry. Tony landed on the floor in front of the bench, but Harry didn't stir. The kid seemed to be missing his shoes and one of his socks. How on earth had the kid managed to lose just the one? It was cold out in New York in February. The kid had to have felt the cold without having shoes on. It wasn't as if the kid was wearing much in the way of layers either. Tony laughed at his train of thought. Since when has he turned into such an old mother hen?

"Harry?" Tony said, shaking the boy gently, but still didn't get a response. Tony took withdrew his suit from around his hand and touched the back of his hand to Harry's forehead. He swore. People weren't meant to be that hot, were they? He had to get Harry back to the tower.

Tony put the suit back around his hand and gently scooped Harry back up into his arms.

"Jarvis, tell Bruce to be ready to check Harry over." Tony said as he powered up the thrusters on his suit. He was careful to make the journey back gently as to not worsen any of Harry's still healing injuries. Tony didn't think that there had been a journey back to the tower that had felt longer.

This kid seemed to just attract drama. Seriously, could anything just go normally for the kid? Tony doubted that. Unlike himself, Harry seemed to be the type that tried to avoid all the drama, but it followed him anyway.

Tony landed on the balcony, his suit disassembling itself. As he walked inside, Harry stirred slightly in his arms, but the kid didn't wake up. Tony made his way down to what was quickly becoming Harry's room, meeting both a very curious Nick Fury, who was failing to hide his curiosity behind that tough exterior, and a tearful Pepper on his way. Tony didn't say a word to either of them, but just walked towards his destination. Tony could hear that they two of them followed him. Tony gently put Harry down on the bed and turned to Bruce.

"He's unconscious. Don't know how long for. Found him on a park bench in Central Park unconscious and he didn't stir when I tried to wake him, although he stirred slightly a minute ago when we came inside. His forehead is hot."

Bruce looked Harry over, but the confused face Bruce wore was not comforting.

"He looks fine." Bruce said, "He should be awake. The only thing wrong, apart from his general lack of weight and height for his age, is that he has a temperature, but I don't understand what is causing it. Unless this is a-"

Bruce trailed off and looked towards Ton and then glanced at Fury. Bruce had a point. What if this was something to do with Harry being a wizard? Fury looked impatient and more than slightly put out that he wasn't being told something. Tony desperately wanted to mess with the grumpy man, but magic people healing was beyond Tony's knowledge and Fury most likely had somebody at S.H.E.I.L.D. that would be able to help. Tony needed Fury on his good side if that was to happen.

Tony nodded at Bruce.

"Unless this is a magical ailment."

The look on Fury's face was priceless. It was one of the few times that Tony had ever seen Eyepatch caught off guard. Fury quickly composed himself and raised an eyebrow.

"Magic? The boy has magic? Is he a threat?"

"No." Tony said simply, which was the truth. Harry was currently unable to use his magic. "His magic is different to Loki's. Apparently it works slightly differently on Harry's earth. Harry needs a wand to use his, but he didn't come with a wand, so he can't access any of his magic."

Fury nodded once.

"Would Thor be of any help? I know his mother is a healer. She would have much more experience in magical illnesses." Bruce said quietly. Tony blinked twice. When had Bruce found out that piece of information? Tony hadn't known that. Then again, Tony didn't particularly care about Thor's family. Thor talked a heck of a lot, and Tony more often than not just tuned Thor out, only chipping into the conversation when an opportunity for sass arose.

Tony turned around and left the room without another word. He made his way out onto the balcony and cupped his hands in front of his mouth. Tony didn't know of a better way to get in contact with Thor.

"Heimdall! I know you can hear me you all seeing dude." Tony shouted at the top of his lungs. "We need Thor back on Midgard. If he could bring a healer with him that would be great. Harry needs help."

Tony walked back inside to questioning looks from all the others.

"What? I was listening when Thor explained the bifrost. All you gotta do is yell at Heimdall."

Tony had no clue if Heimdall would actually pass on his message to Thor. It was the best option that they had though. Tony found himself wandering back into Harry's room.

The kid looked so small in comparison to the bed. Tony could hardly believe that the kid was 16. He was so small, and far too light for his age. Tony couldn't help but feel protective of the lad. Tony had masked his surprise and concern that morning at Harry's reaction to being told to eat, but the more that Tony watched the kid's behaviour, the more he suspicious Tony became. The kid had never had Pizza, but knew his way around a kitchen like the back of his hand. He had cooked an extraordinary amount of food, but hadn't dared to eat any before Tony told him to. The kid flinched when Tony was too loud, or moved unexpectedly. Tony had his suspicions about Harry's home life but hoped that he was wrong. Couldn't the kid ever catch a break?

Tony was unsure exactly how long he spent at Harry's side that afternoon, but it was dark before Jarvis pulled him from his thoughts.

"Sir, Mr Odinson and guests have arrived."

Tony felt a wash of relief pass over him. Shouting to the sky hadn't been so crazy after all!

"Send them in Jar'." Tony murmured, knowing that he didn't have to speak loudly for Jarvis to hear him. A minute later Thor entered the room with Bruce and someone Tony was decidedly not happy to be seeing back so soon. Fury had probably left hours ago after he had gotten the information that he wanted from him. The tower was probably bugged to the high heavens now, so that Eyepatch could keep an eye on them all. Tony would clears them out when he had the time. He didn't currently care if Fury was watching them, he just wanted Loki out of his tower.

"What's _he_ doing here?" Tony spat, rising to his feet and placing himself between Harry and Loki. Having Loki back in his tower had not been in the plan.

"You need a healer, do you not?" Loki drawled, "I am sufficiently knowledgeable in the healing arts."

Tony narrowed his eyes at the trickster. He didn't trust Loki, and he definitely didn't trust Loki with Harry's well being. But Tony didn't seem to have much choice in the matter. Tony ground his teeth together, biting back the scathing remarks that he wanted to hurl at Loki. After a look from Bruce, Tony stepped aside and allowed Loki access to the boy.

Loki ran his hands along above Harry, a blue glow engulfing Loki's hands. It was a tense wait as Loki's hands cycled through an array of different colours, the man's face giving nothing away. The colour faded and Loki took a step back.

"The child is largely fine. He has a depleted magical core. He is magically exhausted and it is taking a physical toll. It is probable a direct result of his means of arrival here on Midgard. He will be fine, his body only requires rest. The child should awaken by himself within the next few days once his core has replenished to a sufficient level."

Tony let out a breath that he hadn't realised that he had been holding. The kid would be okay. There was something about Harry that just made you want to protect him and shield him from the world. Tony wasn't used to that sort of feeling at all. Sure, he cared about Pepper, and he cared about the other Avengers, even if he didn't always show it, but this need, this urge to protect Harry was different somehow.

"We shall take our leave Man of Iron. We shall return in five days to check upon the youngling. If he awakens before then, have Heimdall summon us." Thor boomed and Tony breathed a sigh of relief as Loki and Thor left his tower. He hated having the trickster in his home. He didn't like people trying to break things that belonged to him, and he didn't trust Loki in the slightest.

 **#########################################**

Waking up groggy and unaware of what had happened seemed to be becoming habit for Harry. He was exhausted. What had he done? What had happened? Was it to do with Voldemort? Memories flew back at him, reminding Harry that Voldemort was literally a universe away. The last thing that Harry remembered was sitting on a bench. Had he fallen asleep on the bench?

Harry slowly opened his eyes, the effort of even that movement exhausting him even further. He recognised the ceiling as the one from the room that he had woken up in before and sighed in relief. He wasn't somewhere new. Whatever had happened, he had found his way back to Mr Stark. Harry was a little concerned by the fact that he couldn't remember how he had gotten there. How long had he been asleep for?

"Mr Potter, would you like me to call for some assistance?" A voice said, startling Harry. It took him a few moments to remember that it was Mr Stark's computer thing. Harry pondered the question. He didn't want to be a burden on Mr Stark and Bruce, but at the same time Harry really wanted to know what was going on. After a few minutes of deliberation Harry moved his head incrementally. It was a small nod, but a nod nonetheless. Why on earth was moving so exhausting?

"Very well Mr Potter. Mr Stark is on his way." The wall voice said. Mere seconds later Mr Stark burst through the door.

"Harry, you're awake!" The man exclaimed, bouncing over to his bedside. Harry blinked, and had to force his eyes to open again after they had shut. Mr Stark drooped, his excitement disappearing almost as fast as the man had appeared.

"You've been unconscious for the last three days. We found you at Central Park already passed out."

Harry's eyes widened. What on earth had happened to result in him being out for so long? Evidently his question showed in his eyes, as Mr Stark explained about Harry's magical exhaustion. Magical exhaustion was a serious malady. He had experienced it after his first year confrontation with Voldemort, and Madam Pomfrey had lectured him to the high heavens about being careful to not use as much magic in one go. This felt ten times worse than that had ever been. If anything was going to magically exhaust a person, Harry supposed that travelling from one universe to another, even unwittingly, would be it. Harry was lucky that the magical exhaustion itself hadn't killed him.

Harry felt his eyes droop. He was still exhausted. He didn't want to fall asleep when Mr Stark was talking to him, but despite his best efforts it was not long until Harry was back in Morpheus' grasp.

 **################################**

The next time Harry awoke it was dark. Once again it took him a little while to remember what had happened. Every thought was a struggle; as if he was swimming through honey. Everything took longer to happen. Harry wasn't as tired as he had been the previous time that he had woken up. Harry sat up in the bed and was happy to find that the movement didn't exhaust him as it would have last time. Harry had no clue how long he had been asleep, and so he asked Mr Stark's computer wall voice.

"It has been 37 hours since you were last conscious Mr Potter. It is currently 3am. Would you like me to fetch Mr Stark? He is currently in the lab."

"Yes please." Harry didn't want to disturb the man, but at the same time Harry wanted to finish the conversation that they had been having before he fell asleep. Harry also had the impression that the wall voice computer man would inform Mr Stark that he had awoken, whether Harry wanted it to or not.

Mr Stark soon burst through the door opposite the bed and proceeded to trip over the edge of the rug on the floor, but the man caught himself long before he hit the floor. Harry stifled a laugh at the offended look upon Mr Stark's face as the man in question glared at the rug that had tripped him.

"Have a nice trip?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"Yes, actually. Thanks for asking." Mr Star-Tony replied, a deadpan look upon his face. The two of them shared a look for a few moments before bursting into laughter at the same time.

"What's up short stuff?" Tony asked, stifling his laughter in order to speak.

"How did you- How did you know about magical exhaustion?" Harry said, asking the question that had been bugging him from the moment that he had awoken. Mr Stark shrugged.

"We couldn't find anything wrong with you, so Bruce suggested it might be magical. To cut a long story short, Loki came and did some hocus pocus and said that you'd be okay." Tony said in reply. Harry felt his lips twitch towards a smile at the mention of Loki. Harry was so relieved that this world had other magic users in it. He wasn't alone.

"Sir, Mr Odinson and-"

Mr Stark swore loudly, interrupting The Wall Voice, and Harry couldn't help but grin, he had a feeling that Mr Stark was going to be great for expanding his vocabulary.

"Speak of him and he appears." Mr Stark and rubbed his face in what seemed to be frustration. "I'll be back."

Tony was agitated, that much was clear. Harry had no clue who this 'Mr Odinson' was though, and as such had no clue how long Mr Stark would be gone. Harry fidgeted for a few minutes, before realising that Tony wasn't immediately returning.

"Wall Voice?" Harry said, becoming bored with his own thoughts.

"Yes Mr Potter?"

"I forgot your name."

"Mr Stark named me J.A.R.V.I.S. young sir."

"Thanks."

"Can I be of assistance to you in any way Mr Potter?"

Before Harry could respond, Tony returned, bringing those people who had visited him before.

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Tony watched Harry's eyes light up as he and Loki entered the room, soon followed by Thor. Within seconds of entering the room, Loki had his fingers splayed and was doing the same hocus pocus that he had done to the boy before. Harry looked utterly fascinated by Loki's glowing hands and the kaleidoscope of colours that the magic was cycling through.

"You are still tired, yes?" Loki said, "Your core levels are still quite low, but they have replenished themselves remarkably fast."

Harry nodded.

Loki frowned. What had he found? What was wrong? Loki's hands stopped moving through colours and instead glowed briefly purple before losing all luminescence.

"Your eyes are weak child." Loki said softly. Tony's eyes widened. What on earth did that mean? By the face that Harry pulled, Tony could tell that Harry knew what Loki meant. Tony raised his eyebrows at the kid.

"My glasses didn't come through with me." Harry mumbled, looking down at the duvet which was covering him. Tony sighed a breath of relief. Glasses were something that was fixable. They could do glasses. They could get Harry the best damn glasses in America. They could even get him contacts if he wanted them.

"Jarvis?"

"I am arranging optician appointment as we speak sir."

Tony nodded, taking in the slightly panicked look of the boy in front of him. From what he had heard from Pepper regarding their shopping trip, the kid already showed signs of not being comfortable with money being spent on him. However, if Harry was to live in Avengers Tower then he was going to have to get more than used to that. Bruce had had a similar issue. Tony had more money that he could ever spend in a lifetime, so he might as well spend it on those that he actually cared about; and Harry was definitely quickly becoming one of those.

"So, Reindeer Games," Tony said, addressing the annoying Asgardian, "How long until you leave?"

"I'm not."

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